Live on £4000 for a Year, 2009 Challenge, part 1

sophiesmum_2

Good morning frunchkins:D
Quick post before I get stuck into things at work,

General frugal aims for today;

• storecupboard lunch and tea
• reduce, reuse,recycle one item- recycled my unused pair of mucka boots to DD as not using.
• do something nice for me -
• do something nice for someone else- going to batch cook some curry for OH's takeouts tonight even though can't stand it.
• fitter not fatter - swim and jacuzzi, maybe a walk at lunchtime

Todays frugal meals;

• scrambled egg,tomatoes
• carrot and lentil soup from freezer, apple
• tinned tuna in brine, mixed lettuce, peppers, raw mushrooms, tomatoes,celery,spring onions, cucumber,sprouted seeds

Fruit and veg portions;
1 fruit, 1 pulses,9 veggies,:D

Expenditure or additional income

Aiming for a no spend day -

Remaining target cash for first 6 months food spends - £249.94 left from budget of £400 for first six months.

lyndasharp

I'd just like to say 'ow'. I'm feeling a bit less stiff and sore after a hot bath last night though. H2B has a friend who is an osteopath so I'm going to see her on Sunday and have a treatment, hopefully that will help! My car is probably OK, she had a totally flat battery but H2B has checked everything and it seems to be working fine now. Might just be that I'd been driving so slowly on the way back that I'd run the battery down!

SiannieLaz

Morning All,
Just spend ages trying to catch up since Friday so best wishes and hugs to all.
Had 2 days off work to finish my latest assignment, didn't manage to get it done but luckily got an extension until next Wed, so am battling on every eve to try and get it done - I don't understand statistics at all:(
Had an interview yesterday for a job as a relief funeral arranger, and it seemed to go pretty well - will find out before Friday. It's about £8-10k less than my current role, so I'll have to start making another £100 per week to make it up. My OH doesn't want me to work evenings/weekends but it's gonna have to be tough on him as I really need to make up the money. If I can get my vintage laptop updated, I could work for one of the online companies, but it hasn't got enough memory at the moment. hopefully I can get that sort next week and start applying.
Not doing too badly on the budget. Should be able to stay under for the next two weeks, dahl all round!!!!
have a good one to you all:T xxxx

Brighton_belle

below is the link to the forum post telling how to get a free copy of the victorian reference books they used on the TV series 'Victorian farm:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1474131

a few are posting they love what they have read so for and are leaning new things as well as just enjoying it. Note: this is not the modern bbc book about the series,but the victrorian books we see them use in the series.

1st post is about the farming book ans a few post down someone lists the household book that ruth uses.

the_cat

Hi everyone

Having a good day today. Postie brough £3 luncheon vouchers from a survey I did and got loads of whoopsies last night so budget going well. BTW can I freeze cheese in blocks? I have only grated it and done so before but can't fit grated in the freezer :eek: I have 6 large blocks to do something with.....well they were 10p so I just couldn't bring myself to leave them behind

I have just returned from my FREE cut and blowdry with a fab new hairstyle. Lovely girl cut it and the salon is closer to home than my old one, with free parking and will in future cost £9 less per visit than before, about a third off:j :j

For any of you who might be interested, it's nationwide. Here is linky...

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1458181&highlight=the+hair+group

Frugaldom

Hello to all, hope everyone is doing OK today. Thinking of Ddraig, hope the CAT scan goes OK and Lynda, hope the whiplash goes soon.

It's drizzly and wet here today but we got loads done in frugaldom garden yesterday. I've now converted my most recent Freecycle acquisition into a lovely garden feature, complete with trellis. It means that I'll be able to grow peas and beans up the sides, have lettuce in a large planter (a plastic bread tray) at the bottom and also have space for 2 hanging baskets. :j Will get a piccie as soon as it's dry enough outside.

Postman has delivered my half dozen bantam eggs and the portable incubator is all set up and ready. I'll put the bantam eggs in tomorrow and then the quail eggs in on Sunday so they should, if this all works out, hatch at the same time. I'm not holding my breath, though, as this will be the first time I've tried hatching eggs that have been sent through the post. But it'll still be exciting waiting to find out!

What else did we get done in frugaldom garden? Emm... I filled as many pots as I could with the £10 worth of compost, made a tiny wooden border around the rhubarb (from free off cuts), moved the tray of rhubarb seeds that I thought had got ruined when the greenhouse got wrecked in the storms and discovered the seeds still growing! They all got scopped up and put back in their original tray and are now safely wrapped in bubblewrap and sitting next to the rhubarb patch. I have a tray of pepper seeds soaking on wet kitchen paper to get them started and a pile of seeds sitting ready to go into pots & trays plus all my marigold seeds saved from last year. These are supposed to attract the 'good beasties' if you plant them out around your veggies. Finally, the hutches and 2 repaired kenels (soon to be hen house & duck house) have all had coats of 'friendly' wood preservative/colour. In all the flurry of garden activity, there's been little time to spend. :j

Planting seeds today and then I may do some batch cooking or baking to help keep the kitchen warm. DS is away until Sunday, so mealtimes are dependent on the weather conditions at the moment, last night's dinner was at 8.30pm. :rotfl:

Oh, sky's clearing, rain's stopped...! :j

xnatalie81x

Definitely going to have a look at that book thanks Brighton Belle.

Doing well still - spent £6.27 in co-o* ba humbug. Tesc didn't deliver my coffee. Substituted a 12 pack of hula hoops hmmmm so had to pay extortionate price in local shop. Also got reduced caramel cakes mmmmm £1 instead of 1.99 and they were walnut and caramel and really worth it lol. Plus a few other bits. Will update total spends later.

Also got paid from swim teach and i earnt 110 extra from all the cover i did so £80 additional off student o/d this month plus my little extras totalling £5 - nice to see that going down. SO will come out 20th so time to update again and hoping to have a lil extra available to get it down low low low lol.

More cover planned for end feb and beg march so another £100 mth to throw at o/d - hoping to clear that by end year! and with all the other payments too and saving about 800 mth (only till may tho as then income drops dramatically) to give mbna (equifax) a f&f offer in dec...... hoping they take 3.500k for the remainder of the debt. (am paying 40mth till then!)

ooooooooo things are good right now

Brighton_belle

yes cat, you can freeze blocks of cheese - I do lots.
Just received £10 voucher from pigs back, so thats new car roof aerial from halfords sorted:j .

cw18

I "earned" £30 of shopping vouchers yesterday morning, for turning up to (and taking part in!) a research panel thing -- it was a 1-2-1 session that took about 45 mins, giving opinions of packaging ideas for a new product (or rather, a new take on an old one). It was opposite the Trafford Centre, so (as I've not been there since a very brief '2 shop visit' in September) I had a mooch around there afterwards. Could have used vouchers in B00ts, but didn't see anything to tempt me - not even anything with extra points that would have earned back some of the 'spend' !!

Got a few bits from ELC (paid cash) for working on reading/writing with my GDs (and some glue for a crafting project we're starting on after half-term holiday).

Then nipped into WHS and got some more crafting bits for the project (2 of which were a good price and then went through the till at 50% off :T) plus a food magazine for me -- only problem being the 50% off discounts meant the bill was £18+ so I could only use 1 voucher and I'd expected to be able to use 2 (and I'd only planned to treat myself to the magazine as it was coming out of the vouchers, but by the time I realised I'd have to 'pay' for it I was looking forward to reading it so didn't ask to put it back ).

None of the spends on my GDs are coming out of my budget though, especially as they're partly 'practise runs' for activities I could do as a child-minder :rolleyes2

What really amazed me though was the number of shops I just walked straight past, but that even 12 months ago I'd have called into for a browse and have come out of having bought something I admit I faltered outside a couple, but I then mentally scanned what they sell, decided I didn't NEED any of it, and walked on past -- so I'm really pleased with myself for that, and am now feeling confident to take a much needed trip into town in the next week (need to take back DH's blue badge, but the town hall is rather close to a lot of shops I [strike]can[/strike] used to be able to spend all day in despite not needing anything from them).

And today the postman brought me a £10 Mr T giftcard, which has been earned on a survey site. Took me about 3 months to get there, but it's only one survey every 8-10 days and most only take 5 mins or so -- so not bad going in my eyes (It was also through them I got yesterdays 'gig')


Need to get my spends spreadsheet up-to-date again (really must set aside a few mins each evening and stay on top of it), but looking at my little pile of receipts I don't think I'm doing badly at all this month :T :T I've had to buy a few bits of fruit, some veg, and the regular milk - plus a couple of bags of the value grated cheese my GDs love on cheese on toast after school 2 or 3 days a week - but other than that don't seem to have bought much in the way of food..... I've been really good about sticking to my 'freezer and storecupboard' plans for the month

Managed to use up a bag of Quorn mince last night without DS realising.... I made up a huuuuge pan of Spag Bol, used 2 portions last night, and have put 6 individual portions into the freezer this morning. I used 300g of value mince, plus a 300g bag of Quorn (seriously needed using up), 400g of the mushrooms SM got for me last month, a jar of smartprice bolognese sauce and a tin of value chopped toms (which I discovered at the back of a shelf). DS hasn't even questioned what mince I used in it, so he either didn't notice anything 'odd' or is really getting used to me doing different versions of things to try and keep the costs down

And the fact I could easily fit 6x500g marge pots into the small freezer this morning bears testament to how well my 'use up' plans are going -- both freezers were heaving at the start of the month, and I've also got noticable space in the big freezer:j Just need to remember to empty the 'blocks' from those tubs into labelled bags tomorrow, then I'll gain back half the space I've taken up this morning too

sophiesmum_2

:T :T Well done Cheryl, top marks for sneaking the quorn mince into DS's tea;) , nice haul of vouchers too:T :T sounds like a productive day all round for you.

Nyk - loving the frugal garden updates, was peeking at the blog yesterday to see how garden was coming along, love the start of your willow windbreak near shed.Incubator and eggs sound really exiting:j
Think I will need to invest in some more hanging baskets and brackets this weekend and start getting prepared for the summer.